Two Breaths Walking
by WinryMarellie
Summary: "This is just the first page of my continuing evolution of life." RoyxRiza. A fanfiction based off of the song, "Two Breaths Walking", it takes place back in their younger memories.
1. Before you read

_Dear Readers,_

_It almost feels awkward to write another Royai fan fiction after the last one I produced. "Two Drinks For One" was my baby, but now it has grown up and left me. Hopefully this fan fiction will be much shorter, but I can't guarantee it._

_But really, I want to note that this fan fiction will not follow the series as well as my last for I really wanted to create this one based off of a song. The song is "Two Breaths Walking" by Miku Hatsune. It is probably one of my favorite Vocaloid songs (but note: It is UP THERE with some of my favorites, not my absolute.) and it struck me as a good idea._

_You see, I was listening to my music when I was writing my last Royai fan fiction and that song popped up. Whenever I listen to it, I always like to sing the lyrics in English just for fun. It was then that I realized that I wanted to try this. Just something a little experimental, something different._

_If you ever get a chance, go to youtube and look up the song. I would highly suggest doing so and reading the English translation before you begin reading this fan fiction._

_But back to the fan fiction: This is really going to be something cute that I have in mind. I want to start it out as more of a…prequel if you will…to the series, but I want to take it back to when they were very young. So see, this is where it will begin to stray from the series. I will still try my best to keep the personalities and characteristics of the two, but I can't make any promises._

_With much love,_

_WinryMarellie_

_Have a happy read!_


	2. Two Breaths Walking Lyrics

Just as a courtesy, I am adding the English lyrics that I am following the story by. There are many translations to this song, but this is the version that I am basing my fanfiction off of.

* * *

><p>This is just the first page of my continuing evolution of life, oh.<p>

Because I wanted to hold you, I learned how to walk closer

Because I sometimes get lonely, I learned how to breathe with you

Hey Mama, guess what, at last I found someone that I really like

Are you happy?

Before now

Did you know how to look after yourself, I wonder

Who is the one feeding you this time?

Are these words ones you learned or just copied?

Papa, Mama, everyone

Congrats you did very well

I need to go right away

What's this? Something is wrong...

When I stepped forward to embrace you with these two arms of mine

Somehow they only begun to hurt you more and more with every moment

Words that I normally do not speak are like the cutting edges of a pair of knives

Breaking both of our lives

But before I go to pull out the knife

One thing needs to be done, needs to be felt

So I'll meet my lips with yours

Kissing you

Now you are staying alive

By drinking the pure breath from my lungs

All the words you once knew are just melting and dripping thickly from our mouths

Hey, you are cautiously pulling away to break my breath and say

"I am in love with you," whispered in a wanton tone of voice

If you're gonna make that choice, please quiet all the noise

Just breathe with me and listen to all of my unspoken words


	3. Page one of our story

The summer breeze blew across the grass in Amestris. It was warm that day, but the breeze kept it pleasant and enjoyable.

A young girl's bangs blew out of her face as she felt her body slowly swing back and forth. The chains of the old swing fixated to the branches of a tall, aged tree creaked with every movement. The girl closed her eyes as the wind blew in her face, trying to prevent anything from hitting her face.

The girl jumped off the swing and watched as the dirt swirled around her feet as they connected to the ground. She looked out into the grass, a small smile on her face as she tugged on her dress, adjusting it so that it once more looked nice.

The world was beautiful. What extended before her was all she knew, but it was enough to give her a taste of everything else around her.

The young Riza walked slowly through the grass, watching the blades blow gently with the wind. She looked to the sky and saw the clouds move in a pool of bright blue. Everything looked so wonderful to her, nothing could have been more perfect.

"Riza!" she heard someone yell, the voice was loud and deep.

She turned and looked back at her house, a slight sense of fear shot through her body. She didn't want to mover, but her legs instantly carried her back, obeying to her father's call.

The girl feared her father. She felt like she barely knew the man. He was just a stranger to her that seemed to take care of her. Well, hardly. The man was so caught up in his research that he simply seemed like a psychotic mad man who claimed that he was related to her. For all she knew, he could have kidnapped her as a baby.

She didn't want to believe it though. Riza always ached that somewhere in the man's heart he would one day treat her like his daughter. In the books that he let her read, the ones she was allowed to read, she would sometimes see a father figure that she wished was her father.

Riza felt her short blonde hair, she wished for a mother too. Someone who would tell her she looked beautiful, give her confidence as she brushed her hair, telling her wonderful stories. That didn't happen though. Her hair was short, it would never be long. She decided that. Riza refused to put herself through the process of having long hair if there was no one to tell her she looked nice. What was the point?

The girl was alienated, she was alone.

She stepped into the house to find a boy standing in her living room. He had short black hair and was in front of one of their book cases, standing on top of a stool while he tried to collect some of the books that were lying on the top row, the books Riza was not allowed to touch.

The boy looked back at her and stared. Their eyes connected for a moment and he smiled.

"Riza!" called the old man again.

The girl instantly jumped, running towards the direction of her father's voice once more.

The boy watched as she left, smiling still at the girl.


	4. Because I sometimes get lonely

The young girl ran into the other room where she found her father sitting at his desk, his face down in books before he sat up and called out in a more irritated tone, "Riza!"

"Y-yes, sir?" she asked, clinging the side of the door frame tightly, afraid that if she let go that he would become a monster and pull her in, consuming her.

He didn't even look at her, he just held out a plate and stated, "Wash this."

Riza cautiously walked over to her father, taking the plate from his hands. She slowly stepped away from him, every so often looking back to see if her father was still a man. The young girl was so unsure of everything with him, and she feared to ever actually try and figure out anything about him. The man didn't seem human, he just seemed insane.

As she left the room, she looked at the fragile plate in her hands. Scraps of food were dried onto it from his previous meal that morning. Riza frowned as she stared at it, no matter how much she hoped for greatness in the world, she couldn't deny that she felt the neglect.

She wanted to have someone to walk next to, someone to live life with, but she was alone. She was fated for that. As far as Riza knew, she would live with her father till the day he died, and then maybe continue to live there afterwards. She had no idea what was actually on the outside world, and without the help of her father she would never know. Riza figured it was futile and useless to try and go out into a world she never really knew, and she presumed all she could do is just stay by her father's side in the meantime.

The young girl walked into the kitchen of her house, pulling up a chair from the table over the sink where she climbed up on it. She scrubbed the dish with a washcloth and chipped all of the food off.

The young boy peered around the corner at her. He watched the girl silently, observing her movements and all the features about her. He looked at her short hair, secretly wondering to himself what it looked like long.

He smiled to himself, his cheeks turning a light shade of pink. This girl was cute. Was this the child he had mythically heard off? The boy had only caught glimpses of her every so often, assuming that his mind might have played tricks on him.

It would have made sense, his teacher never once mentioned his daughter directly, it was only presumed that she was there. He never even heard of Master Hawkeye talk about a family whatsoever. However, the house would always magically be cleaned and food was magically made. A daughter was the only explanation since he knew there was no wife.

But this was different, he was pretty sure this was actually her. He was pretty sure that this girl was the woman who made everything function around the house. Where did she hide though? He had never known of her existence till this moment, and he had already worked for her father for quite some time at this point.

Riza dried the dish and tried to lean across the counter. She crawled up on it, attempting to reach the cabinets. It always put fear into her heart when she did this. She was still too small to reach the cabinets, so she was always climbing to try and put dishes away. She never feared falling, she simply feared dropping the plates.

She opened the cabinet, holding the plate in her other hand. Riza stood on her tiptoes, trying to push the plate onto a stack of others. However, as she took another step to bring herself closer to the cabinet, she felt water that was pooled under her feet and her foot slipped, propelling her body backwards.

A scream escaped her lips as her body fell. The plate slipped from her fingertips as she fell, falling away from her body. Her eyes widened as she watched the clean plate soar, her fingers were too petrified to do anything.

The boy instantly reacted and ran over to the girl, watching as she hit the ground, the plate falling to the floor and breaking beside her.

Riza's breath was quick and panicked as she stared at the broken pieces. The boy sat next to her and touched her arm, "Hey, are you okay?" he asked, looking at her panic-stricken face.

She looked at him momentarily before she began quickly scooping the pieces together with her hands.

"Let me help-"

"No." she replied, her voice firm but soft. It sounded so young, pure and innocent, but it shook gently as if she were about to start crying.

"Riza!" her father called from the other room, "What was that sound?"

The young girl froze in place, "I…I…" she couldn't form the words. She was afraid of what would happen when if she got into trouble.

"I'm sorry, Master Hawkeye!" the boy called out, "I accidentally bumped into your daughter and made her drop something!"

"…" there was a long silence before the older man spoke, "Stop messing around, Roy. Where are those books I asked for?"

"I'll bring them once I help clean up-"

"Riza can do that." he interrupted.

Roy stood, looking at Riza with a smile on his face.

"Thank you…" she whispered, looking into his dark eyes.

The young boy shrugged, "Don't worry about it. You can pay me back for it some time." He then walked out of the room, picking up the stack of books he left by the shelf and took them to the room where his teacher was located.

'Riza…' he thought to himself, thinking of the girl's pretty face. 'She sure is cute. I wonder what kind of stuff she likes.'

The girl watched as he left, thinking to herself, 'Roy…' she looked back down at the plates, 'No one has ever done anything so nice for me.'


	5. Are you Happy?

Riza would walk through her house on random days and sometimes see Roy coming in and out of her father's study. He would be carrying papers, books, pens, it all fascinated her as she sat on the staircase watching him from a far. She admired him. The fact that he was so brave to be in the same room as her father, the fact that he got to learn things that she never even knew about. It was amazing to her.

On the other hand, Roy was finding himself in trouble more and more with Riza's father every day. He would always get distracted by the young girl in the house. He would find himself secretly watching her from afar. Even though he only spoke to her once, it was enough to make him want to talk to her again.

Her father didn't like that. He would always snap at Roy to focus. He took Roy under his wing with the intention that the child would focus and aid his research, not to sit and gawk at his daughter for days on end.

Research however just didn't feel the same to Roy after this point. He was a child that found his distraction. Children get distracted easily. He wanted to continue to learn, to aid and discover the advancements that the elder Hawkeye was working on, but he also wanted to see her. He wanted to be able to walk beside her as friends, maybe even more.

The girl looked like she needed a friend, someone to play with, someone to live with. Every time he saw her she was alone. No one to walk next to her, no one to hold her in their arms. She appeared to have no friends and only played outside in the yard or up in her room. She never dared to walk far from the house. It was almost as if she were trained to stay within 100 yards of the home at all times.

Roy seemed saddened by this. He hated the idea of seeing someone alone. He at least had Madame Christmas, the closest thing to a mother, but a mother none the less. At least she was there to go home to. He also had other boys in Central to play with. If he came home early one evening, he would play out in the streets with them till the lights flickered on, calling all the children to come eat dinner.

Did Riza even eat at night with her father? Did she even know what a family meal was?

He frowned, looking back down at the notes that his mentor had scribbled down. He was hoping to unlock the key to flame alchemy, but how could he ever figure it out? Berthold Hawkeye never explained anything, saying that he wasn't ready to trust Roy. He only had trusted one person, and it wasn't the young boy.

When the older man dismissed Roy for the day, the young boy collected his things into a sack. He told his teacher to have a good evening and stepped out of the room.

Roy looked around the house as he stepped towards the front door. The sun was outside setting and all the lights in the house were still off. It was dark and empty. The boy frowned, he was hoping to see Riza once more before he left, but it looked like that wouldn't be the case.

He opened the front door and stepped outside, instantly crashing into something.

"Ow." a girl's voice squeaked, her body hitting the porch.

The boy looked towards the front of him and saw Riza, sitting on the ground with a broom in her hand. He instantly held his hand out to help her up, "I'm so sorry!"

She took his hand and pulled herself up, holding tightly onto the broom as she looked at the ground. "I-It's okay. You probably just didn't see me…"

The girl was so timid, so shy, it was as if she had no idea how to talk to people.

"H-Hey…" Roy began, gently rubbing his head. He looked to the ground as his cheeks flushed a light shade of pink. His feet shuffled in place as he tried to build up courage. "Y-your father told me that I didn't have to come by tomorrow…and there is a festival going on in the next city over…"

The girl looked up at him, staring with her big brown eyes. He turned up to look into her eyes and felt his cheeks grow warm. He couldn't believe how cute she looked.

"I just…I wanted to know if you wanted to go there with me." he finally choked out. His little heart raced as he feared rejection.

Riza was silent for a moment, then looked back to the ground, squeezing onto the broom. "I…I don't know…" she replied quietly, "I haven't exactly left this place before…"

Roy stared in shock, what he figured was right. She had been confined there her entire life. "Come on!" he tried to convince her, "It will be tons of fun!"

She looked at him again, "Fun?" she liked the sound of that. Riza never really got to do many things, and this was something different.

"Yeah!" he smiled, "I'll come pick you up tomorrow morning…say, 9:00 AM?"

The girl smiled, joy took over her face. "I'll be here."

Roy pranced home to Central, he was so excited for the next day. He would get to hang out with the girl he had been observing from a far, he would finally get to know who she truly was.

When he returned to his street, he didn't even bother to play outside with the other boys. He simply waved at them and shouted, "Maybe another time!" when they asked if he wanted to play. Roy darted into his foster mother's bar. Madame Christmas, Chris Mustang, whatever anyone wished to call her, was standing at the bar, cleaning one of the glasses.

The large woman looked at him and raised a brow as the boy ran up to the counter, taking a seat on a bar stole and throwing his book bag onto the counter top.

"Hey mama, guess what?" he asked, his face still holding a bright smile.

Chris looked at him for a moment longer before she looked back down on at the glass. "What?" she asked, her voice coarse and rough.

"At last I found someone I really like!" Roy finished, smiling.

The woman looked back at him, raising an eyebrow. The fact that such a small boy spoke like that seemed ridiculous to her. A child such as him didn't know what they meant by liking someone, and she was used to hearing him change his mind every few weeks like every other small boy. For the "At last" part was a tad shocking, she didn't expect much from it.

"Are you happy?"


	6. Words learned or copied

The next morning Riza was up early. She had made a note to get up before her normal time and try to finish everything around the house. She snuck into her father's study to find him there, asleep as his face was buried in piles of his alchemic research.

She slowly walked up next to him, peering over to see her father's face. It was moments like this when she loved to see him. He wasn't a madman when he was like this, he was simply a human being.

He was just her dad. Nothing more, nothing less.

Riza stood on her tip toes and kissed her dad on the cheek before she took his plates off the table from dinner time the previous evening.

As she walked away, she thought about her father. She couldn't remember the last moment that he had actually slept in his bed. As far as she knew, she hardly saw the man leave his study. She often would have questioned as to whether or not he had a room if she didn't dust it every few days.

But her father wasn't to bother her today. Today was the day where she would see the outside world for the first time. It scared her, but she felt excitement over power all of the butterflies fluttering in her tiny stomach. Riza never knew the world past her front lawn, but she figured it was beautiful. People loved each other, everyone got along, all disputes were easily settled.

Just like in the books her father allowed her to read.

The girl hummed to herself as she did her chores. Her childhood innocence filling her body with joy. Nothing was to bother her today, not her shouting father, not her chores. It was going to be wonderful.

She dawned one of her dresses, pulling the edges to straighten it out. It was a light creamy pink that covered her shoulders and flowed down to her knees. Riza looked at herself in her mirror, brushing her short blonde hair back and watching it fall back down. It tickled the back of her neck and her jawbones lightly. It was getting long, but she didn't really mind on this day. For once she had someone who would actually get to see her hair, she didn't need to just chop it all off. It wasn't useless today.

Riza grabbed a barrette off her dresser and clipped it to the side of her head. She smiled as her cheeks turned a light shade of pink. She never before got to wear anything in her hair, it felt nice to do so for once.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door from downstairs. She looked out her window to see Roy standing at her front door.

He looked up and smiled, waving at her.

Riza smiled in return and pulled her head back in the window, grabbing her bag and running down the stairs.

She opened the door to find the young, black haired boy standing there. He had his hands in his pockets and a warm atmosphere about himself and it made Riza feel comfortable.

The young girl stepped outside and quietly closed the door, hoping not to wake her father and allowing him to sleep.

"Are you ready?" Roy asked, holding out his hand for her to take.

Riza smiled and took his hand, ready for him to lead her away from the life she knew for the first time in her life.

The two children walked together until they reached a road. Riza was in awe as she looked at everything, it all was so new. To see other parts of Amestris was the most exciting thing to her.

"Where do we go now?" Riza asked, looking at Roy.

"We wait for the next bus." he replied, pointing to the old sign next to the road. "It should be coming here soon."

Riza stared at the sign. She had never been in a bus before. Let alone, she never really used any sort of public transportation. As she watched vehicles pass, she was amazed at their speed.

Roy spoke to her about them and she just looked at him in awe. She didn't know that an automobile could actually transport you to so many places with such speed. He spoke to her about the many things that she would get to see for the first time.

"How did you learn all of these things?" she asked as the two sat next to each other by the side of the road.

"I read about them and I have actually seen them." he replied, boasting a bit about his knowledge.

"Wow…" Riza replied. Roy was so cool in her eyes, he knew all of these things that she never had even heard of.

"How have you not heard of some of this stuff?" he asked, looking at her with a curious expression.

Riza was silent momentarily, then looked to the ground, "I never get to leave my house. My father makes me stay there all the time. He only lets me read certain things, only learn about certain stuff…"

"But do you really learn it?" Roy asked.

The girl looked at him, confused, "What do you mean?"

"You know how to look after yourself…but I wonder…" he paused, looking at the ground, "Are you really learning these things or just copying the actions from the books you read."

Her eyes grew sad, she had never thought about it like that before. She never realized that she never was taught anything. The actions she did were never learned, they were just copied by example. The things she read about, she only knew them because her dad gave her the books, she never was actually taught about them.

"Hey, look! The bus is here!" Roy smiled, standing up.

Riza raised her head and stood, looking at the vehicle.

The doors opened and Roy began to step forward, then looked back at Riza. "You coming?"

"I've never ridden a bus before…" she replied, shuffling her feet quietly in place. Her stomach felt nervous about the first time experience.

The dark haired boy extended his hand, "Don't worry," he told her, then took her hand, "it's fun. And if you get scared I will hold your hand."


	7. I'll learn how to walk with you

The two sat in the bus together, Riza closest to the window so that she could see out. Her hand was tightly holding onto his as she felt the bus move. She had never been so far away from her home, and now she was being taken to the next town over. She felt excitement bubble in her but she also felt an over powering fear of what was going to come her way.

But the world was beautiful, right? There would be nothing that could harm her out there.

Roy stared at her, smiling stupidly. She was so cute in his eyes. Plus, he was holding her hand, not many boys his age got to do that with girls. Then again, most young boys just wanted to play and get dirty. Girl's were gross and mom was the only exception.

This young child didn't think that though. Although he constantly hung out with his other guy friends on his down time, he still was distracted by girls. They were like this rare species to him that he always wanted to know. He liked them, but was always nervous to talk to them. The fact he sucked up the courage to talk to Riza was enough to surprise him.

But he was happy he did it. There was something about her that topped all of the other girls that he had had crushes on. She was special.

Riza looked back at him and Roy turned his head, trying to hide the fact that he was staring.

"How far away is this place?" she asked.

He looked back at her, his face slightly red, "I..think it's about twenty minutes away."

She looked back out the window for a moment before turning back to Roy, "Thank you."

"For what?" He questioned.

"For taking me out for the day." she smiled, "I have been hoping for something fun to do."

"Do you ever have fun?" Roy asked.

She was silent for a moment, "Well, I…have the swing."

"Is that it?"

"My father sometimes gives me books to read."

"But don't you have any friends to come over and play with you?" He asked, turning his body to it was facing towards her.

The girl was quiet for a moment, then looked at her feet. She had no friends. No other girls to come over and play dress up, to talk about the little girly things that girls did. She never played house with anyone except for with a few toys and some random objects around the house. The boy that was sitting next to her now, that was the closest thing she had ever had to a friend.

He sensed her silence held significance. "You have no friends, do you?"

She shook her head slowly.

"Well," he squeezed her hand tighter, "from this point on, I will be your friend! We will be the best of friends!"

Riza looked back at him, her eyes wide with surprise. "R-Really?" a wide smile took over her face, she was so excited. "Oh, Roy!" She leaned over and hugged the boy tightly.

His face flushed a bright pink as he hugged her back. He smiled brightly as he thought about hugging her. Her skin was so soft and she smelt sweet, like a bouquet of flowers had been shoved in his face.

But mostly he was proud of himself. The girl he wanted to get to know was now his friend.

She was his friend.

And he was hers.

When Riza let go of him, she looked at her friend's face. "What kind of stuff do friends do?"

Roy looked at her momentarily then tried to think about it, "Um, they play games together, they tell each other stories…"

"Do they stay the night at each other's houses?" she asked, her voice sounding really excited.

His face changed color again as he got really flustered, "W-well they can…"

"Do you want to stay with me tonight then?" her voice was eager.

"Well…" Roy paused, looking down, "Normally girls stay at other girl's house, and boys stay at other boy's houses."

"That's stupid." she replied.

"It's the rules."

"What happens if the girl has a brother?" she asked, questioning what he just told her, "Wouldn't that be breaking the rules?"

"That's a good point…"

"See!" she told him, grabbing his hand once more, "You should stay the night with me then!"

"Well I can't tonight." he told her.

Riza frowned, "Why not?"

"The kids have to ask their parents first."

"Oh." she thought about her father, "I guess we do need permission."

Roy smiled at her, "Don't worry. Your dad has me over all the time, I am sure he will be okay with it. And I know my mom won't mind!"

Her eyes brightened again, "Really?"

"Yeah."


	8. We'll learn how to live together

When they got off of the bus, Riza quickly grabbed Roy's hand again. "How far away is the festival?"

"It's just a five minutes walk from here." the boy replied, leading her down the road.

The two kids kicked pebbles as they walked, watching how far they could send the tiny stones soaring into the air and down the street. Riza would stop every so often and look around her, taking in the new environment. She never knew how pretty the countryside of Amestris truly was.

She held onto her new friend's hand as she smiled softly, her heart was racing with so much joy that it was as if the butterflies that once lived in her stomach had fluttered away and went to a new home.

Riza was so happy.

As they approached the rural city, Riza heard music from the streets.

Decorations soon began to reveal themselves as dark toned people danced in the streets, singing different songs while others played instruments. People were laughing, people were dancing along side one another. They ate, they played, everyone looked as though they were having fun.

Their souls were enlightened by the pure atmosphere of the place. Smiles danced across their faces as one by one joined the festivities.

The young girl spun around as she gave her self a three-sixty degree vision of the events.

"Roy!" she called out, "This is amazing!"

The young boy smiled, taking her hand. He led her into the crowd of people, pointing out to her all of the booths and explaining what they were.

"And that one there sells these special rolls that they only make for the festival." he told her, pointing to a cart in the road.

"Are they good?" she asked, looking at him questioningly.

He nodded in response, "Yeah, they are the best!" Roy pulled her body over to cart and dug into his book bag, pulling out some coins. "Can we have two rolls, please?" asked the boy as he handed the man his money.

The man offered them a smile and handed the kids two rolls, "Have a good time and enjoy!"

Riza took her roll and looked at it. The bread still felt warm, proof that they were being freshly made and brought out to the wooden cart. She looked at it, as if a bit skeptical to take the first bite.

Roy looked at her, he was already eating. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"It's really good, right?" she asked, as if looking for reassurance.

He nodded, "Yeah. It's one of the best things you will ever taste."

"Okay…" she replied, still a but unsure. Riza took a small bite and chewed it, contemplating its taste.

The bread was soft, warm, and if tasted like nothing she ever had before. It was amazing, her taste buds were leaping with joy.

"This is amazing!" she exclaimed, "What do they put in this? I have never had bread that tasted so good!"

Roy shrugged, "They never say. It's an old town recipe or something like that.

"It's so good…" she commented, taking another bite.

The two children went and sat on the side of the road as they ate, watching as people walked by, singing and talking.

A group of kids ran by them, looking as though they were playing a game. One of the boys stopped abruptly in front of the two and looked at them, "Hey, you guys want to play with us?"

"What are you playing?" Roy asked, watching as the other kids gathered around. Riza on the other hand looked to the ground, embarrassed to talk.

"Tag." another smiled, he was missing a tooth.

Roy looked at them smiling before he looked back at Riza. He took her hand in his and asked, "Do you want to play?"

She looked at him and cuffed her hands around her mouth, quietly talking to him, "I don't know how to…"

"It's not hard!" he whispered back. "It's really fun." The boy pulled her hand and managed to get Riza's body to stand. "It's really easy." he reassured her, "All you have to do is avoid the person who is 'it'. If they tag you, then you are 'it' and you have to try to tag someone else."

"W-who's it?" she asked, looking at the group of people.

A boy in the back of the crowd raised his hand, "I am."

"So do you guys want to play?" another asked.

Riza squeezed Roy's hand, "You'll help me, right?" she asked, looking for some sort of reassurance.

He laughed, "Of course, until one of us gets tagged."

She smiled a bit and nodded. The other kids smiled too.

"Alright." one of them said suddenly, "Everyone spread out and we will start again!"

All the kids did so and they began running around. Riza followed closely behind Roy, trying to avoid getting tagged. The kids laughed as they ran, chasing one another in simple childhood entertainment.

However, as the kids separated, they were forced to give their goodbyes.

"Do you two want to play tomorrow?" One of them asked.

"We don't live here…" Riza replied, her tone saddening a bit.

"Aw, that stinks…" Another groaned, "We had fun playing."

"We can come back next year." Roy commented then looked at Riza as he watched her eyes light up. He was glad to see that shimmer of hope in her eyes that soon radiated to all the other kids.

"See you next year then!" they all told the two and went their separate ways.

Riza and Roy were left to stand there. The young girl was smiling, "Can we really come back?""Every year if you want."


	9. I walked towards you with these two arms

Riza's dress twirled as they danced. Both her and Roy had gotten caught up in the music and in turn were dancing with the rest of the festival guests. People spun around the two children as women sang folk songs as they twirled around them.

Smiles were over the two children's faces as they laughed, holding each other's hands as they danced. Riza had never before had so much fun and it was exhilarating to be filled with such emotion and energy. She let go of Roy momentarily as she spun, feeling the breeze hit her face and catch underneath her dress.

"Riza!" he called out, still smiling as he ran towards her.

She didn't listen.

The young girl continued to dance and giggle, shutting out everything around her except for the concentrated fun. Slowly she got lost in the crowd of people.

"Riza!" Roy called again, but the music drowned out his voice.

So many adults. They were all surrounding him as he pushed himself through the crowd. He couldn't find the blonde girl anywhere. She vanished amongst all of the adults.

Where did she go?

She was lost in a world that she didn't understand. One that she was unfamiliar with. Riza was ignorant to the world around her, and now Roy had lost her. He lost the girl that he cherished to a world she didn't understand.

He pushed through the crowd. He needed to find her. Everyone surrounded him, not understanding his need to push through them. He was just a rude boy that never learned his manners. As he called her name, he never once said sorry as he pulled his way through.

It didn't matter. The adults didn't matter. Riza was his only concern.

"Riza!" he shouted again.

"Roy this is amazing!" Riza shouted out, looking back behind her to find that she was alone. "Roy?"

All that was in front of her was a crowd of strangers. Not one familiar face in this world was next to her. She looked up at the adults. All of their faces seemed black, nothing but a smile crossed them for that is all she saw. She didn't see the eyes of compassionate people that she knew and loved. They were all strangers of foreign identities.

"Roy!" she screamed, her eyes filling up with water. She ran around the dancing people, trying to find him.

She ached to want to ask people if they had seen him, but she was nervous. "E-Excuse me!" she would cry out, but then she would feel to cowardly to speak to any of them. Riza felt salty tears drip down her face, but no one bothered to comfort her.

"W-Why is no one helping me?" she cried to herself, wiping her eyes. She could have sworn the world was only filled with kind people who cared about each other, but why was no one willing to come up and help her when she needed help the most?

"Roy!" she cried.

"Riza!" he shouted, feeling the panic rise inside of him. He felt as though Riza was lost in a sea of people. He grabbed people shirts, asking if they had seen a young blonde girl, but they all shrugged, going back to their good times.

"Roy!" he heard faintly.

"Riza?" he called out, an uncertain tone in his voice.

"Roy!" the voice cried again in panic, "I-I'm" he heard sobbing, "I'm so scared! Roy where are you?"

He followed the voice, calling out, "Riza! Don't worry! I'm coming!"

"I'm scared!" he heard again, "Roy, where are you?"

The young boy broke through the crowd of people to find the blonde girl standing there. She was looking at the ground, wiping the tears from her eyes as she sobbed uncontrollably, calling out his name every few moments. Her voice was shaky and her body matched. She was terrified.

The boy ran up to her and hugged her body tightly to his. "Don't worry." he told her, pulling her as close to him as possible, "It's going to be okay."

She cling to his shirt tightly, crying into his chest. Even though she was here, she couldn't help but keep sobbing. Her body trembled as he held her in his two arms.

They were sitting by the side of the road as they ate another roll. Riza's eyes were still red as she sniffed every so often. She wiped her eyes every so often, trying to get any excess tears off of her cheeks. They were tear stained as she heaved large breaths. They shook as she exhaled, proof that she was still trying to hold back more tears.

"Never scare me like that again." Roy told her, taking a bite of his bread.

"Why did no one help me?" she asked, looking at her warm roll.

He stared at her.

"I thought…" she paused, squishing the bread softly, "I thought that everyone loved each other, every one helped on another." Riza looked up at Roy, "That's what I read in my books…there would always be a wicked witch…but that was only one in a million."

Roy frowned and looked towards the ground, "The world doesn't always work like a story book."

"I don't understand…"

"People can make their own choices." he continued, "Everything isn't as black and white as you think. People don't live like the text you see on paper. The world offers many scenarios that cause everyone to be different. Do you understand?"

She bit her bread and looked at the ground, "You sound like you have been hanging around my dad too much…"

He looked at her and smiled, taking her hand in his. "Come on, I think there is something you will like."

Riza followed him as he pulled her in some random direction. She nibbled softly on her bread as she didn't pay attention to where they were going.

Suddenly she felt something on top of her head. Riza looked at Roy to find him adjusting something on her head.

Riza touched it lightly with her hand, "What is this?" she brushed her fingers over it and felt petals and leaves.

Roy grabbed one for himself and showed her. There was a ring of flowers that were weaved together into a headpiece. "It's kind of like a flower hat."

She took hers off of her head and looked at it. She stared at the pink and white flowers, touching them lightly. "It's so beautiful…"

The boy began to dig in his book bag for the money until the woman at the cart spoke, "Sweetie, don't worry about paying for those. You kids just have a good time."

He looked at her, "Thank you!" he smiled.

The woman smiled in return, "No problem." She then turned her attention to Riza, "That's looks very pretty with your dress, sweetheart."

Riza blushed, "R-Really?"

The woman nodded.

"Thank you!" the young girl smiled, placing the ring of flowers back on her head.

In time the sun began to retire. Roy and Riza had made their way back to the bus stop where they boarded it and went home. The entire time they looked out the window, watching as the sun disappeared behind the country's hills.

When they got off the bus, the two walked, hand in hand as they listened to the sounds of the bugs coming to life for the evening.

A small lightening bug floated past the two.

"Hey, watch this." he told her, running over to the bug and catching it in his hands.

"Don't kill it!" Riza cried.

Roy chuckled and ran over to her, "I didn't kill it, look!" he opened his hands a bit and revealed the bug, glowing inside of his cupped hands. The bug crawled over his hands and onto Riza's fingertips, lighting once more before it took off in flight.

A smile crossed the girls face as she watched in amazement. The small lightning bug continued to fly, it's light growing bright then fading. "How amazing…" she whispered then looked back at Roy.

Fireflies surrounded them as they walked. It was as if the bugs were lighting the way home for them, showing them that their path was not filled with danger. The world to them was safe.

Riza saw her house in the distance. She smiled, knowing she was home, but also didn't want to bring her tiny feet to move close to it. She had seen the outside world, her sheltered life was broken.

The girl looked back at Roy. He opened up a new horizon to her that was filled with things she never knew. When she was with him, she wanted to learn about all the things her father never wanted her to learn. She wanted to speak with him about everything. She wanted to keep standing by his side, breathing and living with him forever.

"This was amazing…" she whispered to him, holding his hand tightly. "I have never had so much fun in all my life."

"Riza!" came a voice suddenly. She looked back to see the older Hawkeye standing at the door, waiting for her.

"You should go, your father is waiting." Roy told her, a soft smile on his face.

"Riza!" the man called again.

She looked back at him then at the ground. Her face turning a soft shade of pink. Her gaze turned back at him as she stood on her toes, leaning over and kissing his cheek quickly. "Thank you." she whispered before running off in the direction of her dad's voice.


	10. There is a reason why

_This chapter made me a bit emotional. I also had a heck of a time trying to get this uploaded._

* * *

><p>"Where have you been all day?" the elder Hawkeye demanded out of his daughter.<p>

Riza stood there, tears coming to her eyes as she stared at his feet, unable to look at her father in the face. "I'm sorry…" she choked out.

He frowned in disappointment, "Riza, you know you aren't suppose to leave the house."

She looked up at him. Never before had she questioned it, but now that she had seen the world she couldn't understand why. The girl was raised to believe that the world only extended as far as her front yard. There was nothing past it, no world that extended outwards. Why did her father do that to her? She didn't understand it at all. It wasn't bad, it wasn't scary. What was he keeping from her? Riza wanted to question his motives but stepped down at the last moment, afraid to question his authority.

Riza bit her lip, listening as her father scolded her but trying to block out all of the harshness in her father's tone.

"Go to bed." he instructed. Riza followed his orders without question and went straight upstairs.

She wiped her eyes as she walked into her room. She pulled off her dress and fished through her drawers till she found a nightgown and pulled it on. Riza looked in her mirror and still saw the ring of flowers on her head. She took it off and looked at it. The flowers still looked beautiful.

Riza placed it on top of her dresser and smiled. She then turned her attention to out her window, seeing Roy still standing outside.

His face had an idiotic smile on it as his cheeks looked to be stained red. Had he not moved since Riza kissed him goodnight?

She giggled and called out quietly, "Roy!"

The boy snapped out of his trance, "Y-yeah?"

"Aren't you going to go home?" she asked, cupping her hands around her mouth, "Won't your mom get worried?"

It dawned on him that he was in fact still standing in front of her house. His face flushed a deeper shade of pink as he scratched the back of his head. "O-Oh, yeah…"

The girl chuckled a bit and waved goodbye to the boy once before she crawled back into her window, making her way over the her bed.

Seeing Roy somehow masked her pain. The emotions and actions of her dad some how didn't bother her when she had his there. As she laid down in her bed she looked at the window. Was it the fact she had a friend now that changed everything? Before she always had felt two holes that were empty. She knew for a fact one of them was reserved for her parents to fill, but she never quite understood the other. The empty feeling in half of her heart now felt as if it were bursting at the seams.

She never quite knew what she was missing all of her life, but she felt it now and it was the most glorious thing in her life.

Her hand extended to the shelf next to her bed and she pulled out a book, flipping through it's pages. She read through each line multiple times, but it didn't even matter. She knew the pages by heart. She felt the broken spine of the book, proof as to how many times she had opened and closed it. The pages were old, aging as their edges frayed. Corners were dog-eared and damaged. The book had seen many days just as the rest of the ones in Riza's room.

Before this was all she had. Other than her toys, she had no real friends. Riza ran her fingers gently over the faded illustrations, tracing along the princess's dress in the story. It were the people like these that she spent her time with. The characters were her friends.

But they weren't real, that was the problem.

As much as she had wanted before, they would never come alive and talk to her. They were only animated in her mind and only followed the actions that were written down in text. She never had anyone, as much as she had tried to imagine it.

Her eyes grew heavy as she looked at the words. She had Roy now…and that sufficed. That filled every empty void that ever existed in her life. Her absent mother, her neglecting, psychotic father. The last thing she expected was for a friend to instill such emotions inside her.

Tears slipped down her cheeks as she thought about him. They appeared out of joy. For so many years, Riza had cried only out of loneliness or sorrow, for the first time she cried because she was happy.

"Thank you…" she whispered, closing her eyes. Sleep over came the young girl as she nuzzled into her pillow, her book falling to the ground with the pages open.

As the time passed, the moon rose high in the dark night sky. It added illumination to the night along with the mass collection of stars that offered the vision of millions of galaxies light years away.

Riza's door slowly creaked open as a man stepped in.

He pulled himself into the room and walked to her bed, his footsteps were soft but still clacked quietly against the wooden floor of her bedroom.

The man looked down when he heard the crack of paper. He moved his foot out of the way to see Riza's book, still open and lying on the ground. The man picked it up and dusted off the footprint left from the bottom of his shoe and closed the book, placing it back on her shelf.

He sat on the edge of Riza's bed and placed his hand on her head. "My daughter…" he spoke quietly, brushing her short hair gently with his hand.

The older Hawkeye sat silently for a moment, taking in how much his daughter had been growing and how little he actually paid attention to it.

He glanced over at her door frame where uneven, scribbled lines were drawn. Each line looked like it was drawn by Riza herself whenever she wanted to see how much she had grown. He was pretty sure that they weren't accurate and she probably drew them too tall or too short, but still…

He stared at the mark from when she was four. She was so small. As his eyes looked at the current one, he was amazed at how big she had gotten in such short years. Each date was written beside it and it only made him realize how much time had actually gone by.

Berthold hated himself for this, but what could he really do? He knew that he was sacrificing the one and only chance he would ever have to raise a daughter, but he knew his research was important. He had to keep telling himself that what he was doing would be revolutionary, that the end would justify the means.

But was it really worth it?

The elder Hawkeye looked back at his child, he brushed the side of her face gently as he felt himself on the verge of feeling the pain hit his heart. He hated himself and he couldn't get that feeling out of the pit of his heart. The man wanted to take care of his daughter, but he was doing a terrible job at it. Everything he did, he was trying to do to protect Riza. He wanted to keep his daughter pure, to prevent her from falling down a path like him where he ignored his loved ones only to pursue what seemed important.

But was what he was doing now really right? He was keeping her from everything…but it was all to prevent her from being hurt.

He brushed her hair again, "I never wanted to hurt you, Riza." he whispered as he leaned over and gave her a kiss on the forehead. "I love you." her Father spoke as he stood, walking towards the door.

The man stopped momentarily and turned back to her. She was smiling and hugged her pillow. His daughter looked happy despite how terrible he had always been to her. "You are the only one I can ever truly trust." 


	11. Words unspoken

"And you sit there." Riza spoke, setting one of her toys on a chair in the living room. She was sitting around, adjusting each of her play mates as she got ready for a game.

"What are you doing?" Roy asked, walking over to her while holding some books that belonged to Riza's father.

Riza looked up at him, "Playing house."

The boy laughed a bit, "Don't you need a mommy and a daddy to play house?"

She sat quietly for a second, "Well yeah but…"

Roy raised an eyebrow, "What's wrong?"

"…" she was silent for a moment, "Usually I just have one of my stuffed animals play that part…" Riza held a stuffed bear in her hands while she looked down at it, squishing it's body so the arms and legs would move.

He stared at her for a moment before he spoke, "Well, I am spending the night tonight, right?"

"Y-yeah…I think so." she replied, "But what does that have to do with it-"

"If you wait till your dad lets me off, we can play house together then and I will be the daddy." he told her with a smile. "Just wait till this afternoon and we can play."

She nodded as she watched Roy walk off, carrying the stack into the other room. It had been a few months since Roy had been taken under her father's wing. It still puzzled her as to how he could work with her father. The boy probably knew more about her father than she did herself.

Riza frowned, looking at her stuffer bear. She still couldn't grasp her small hands around the fact that she barely knew anything of her father. He never told her any stories or taught her how to do anything. Their entire relationship was distant.

There were moments when she wished that she could help him. But her father never would let her. He put his books on the top shelf for a reason, he wanted to ensure that she never caught a glimpse of what he was doing. All she knew was that it had to do with Flame Alchemy. It was something revolutionary, something that would change the world.

And it was all worth it to change it for the better. "Right?" she whispered to her bear, feeling tears swell in her eyes, spilling out to land on her fingers. "It's all…" she sniffed, "To make the world even better than it already is."

She was lying to herself, but she made her little mind believe it. Despite how much it hurt to lose her father a little more every day, so long as she kept lying that it would all be okay, then maybe someday it would be.

Throughout the day, Riza tried to find ways to occupy herself. She had already gone through and cleaned everything, and aside from her toys in the living room, the house was spotless. As she patrolled the house, she looked for some way to entertain herself.

It was suddenly when she came across her father's room. Riza stood by the door and looked at it. Her hand extended and touched the door knob, turning it slowly as she pushed the door open.

She peered inside and cautiously made her way inside.

Riza had already cleaned in there. The bed was made, not that it ever was unmade, and everything was dusted.

The young girl slowly walked around the room as she stared at everything. There were no family photos adorning the walls, nothing at all. The place hardly seemed as if it had been lived in.

She looked up on the shelves and saw a few Alchemy books. Riza stood on her tiptoes in attempts to reach them. She always wanted to see what was in them. Slowly every day she was growing, and now she could feel her fingertips touching their spines. She brushed them gently as she tried to wrap her hands around one of the books.

Her hand managed to grab one as she pulled it down. It slipped from her grasp and fell open onto the floor.

Riza peered over to find it was in fact filled with random papers and pictures. She picked up one of the photos and felt her eyes swell up with tears.

There was no alchemy in this book.

The picture contained one of her father and some woman holding a child. The photo was old, not containing any color and it's edges looked damaged. The woman was sitting in a bed, the child cradled in her arms and a smile on her face as she looked at her baby girl. Her father was standing next to her, bent over as he held her shoulders, looking at his child with a smile on his face as well.

"This is…" she whispered, tracing her fingers over the photo. It was the first time she had ever seen her mother. Never before had she asked anything from her dad about her, she just accepted that she didn't exist.

She flipped through the pages and pulled out photos of her parents when they were younger, the pictures damaged from seeing many years. Her mom was beautiful, she looked so young and happy. Every picture that she was in she was smiling and each one looked genuine.

The same thing with her father. Riza had never seen him so happy.

As she browsed through the book, she even found pictures from when she was very little. He had documented all of the events that took place in Riza's toddler years. He wrote down her first words, the things she learned and photographed all of those precious moments.

She had no clue that she meant so much to him.

All of this time, Riza figured that her father thought nothing of her, that he just was letting her live there. She loved her father, but she never knew how he felt towards her. She was important to him.

The girl sobbed out of pure happiness. Her tears dripped down her cheeks as they wet her neck. Her father cared. That was a feeling she never thought that she would ever know of. She never knew how wonderful knowing something like this felt.

Riza wiped her eyes as she breathed heavily. She tried to stop herself from crying as her throat ached, but she couldn't bring herself to do so. She felt her heart swell with a fullness that she never before felt. That emptiness that once occurred was now gone, she never needed to feel loneliness again.


	12. Breaking both of our lives

Roy stepped outside of the house in the late afternoon, looking around trying to find Riza. He walked around the front of the house looking for her, "Riza!" he called out.

"I'm back here!" she replied.

He followed her voice around to the back of the house. He found the girl walking around the yard picking wildflowers from the grass. Roy made his way over to her and looked at her face. There was a huge smile on it and her eyes looked different than before. They held a new glisten to them that he never had seen before.

"You seem happy." Roy said with a smile.

She nodded, turning her head to look at him, "Yeah, I am in a really good mood."

"Why?"

"It's a secret." she replied, holding up the flowers, "Do you want one?"

"Sure." Roy replied, taking one of the flowers, "Do you still want to play house?"

Riza nodded, "Yeah."

"Alright…" he was silent for a moment, "So am I the dad?"

"Mhmm" she smiled, "And I am the mom."

"Do we have any children?"

She shook her head, "Not yet. I don't really know how we get one."

The boy frowned, "I don't know either." he paused, "Well, they are made up of stuff like magnesium, water, zinc-"

"We can't get a hold of that stuff." she replied with a frown.

He looked at her, "Well then how else do you make a baby?"

"Doesn't a bird bring one to you?" she asked.

"You mean the stork?"

She nodded, smiling, "Yeah!" Riza looked up to the sky, "When we see one fly by, it must mean that we became parents and he brought us a child!"

Roy stood next to her and looked at the sky, "What do we do until then?"

Riza looked back at him, "I guess you go to work and I clean."

"But I already did that all day." he replied.

"Then we eat dinner!" she smiled and grabbed his hand, pulling him towards the house.

"But what if we miss the stork?" Roy questioned, stopping in place.

She looked back at him, "That's a good point."

The two sat down together and looked at the sky, waiting to see a bird fly by. The colors in the sky slowly began to fade from bright blues into oranges and yellows. The two children talked as they passed the time.

"Hey, can I tell you a secret?" Riza asked, looking down from the sky at Roy.

He turned his gaze to meet hers, "Sure. What is it?"

"Promise you won't tell?" she asked, turning her body to face his.

Roy nodded in response, "I won't tell a soul."

Riza smiled in response, "Okay." She looked at the ground, "I found something out today."

"What is it?" he asked, turning his body to face her.

"My mother was beautiful." her eyes closed slightly as she smiled.

"Why would you want to keep that a secret?" the young boy questioned, confused as to why the girl wouldn't let anyone to know.

She shrugged, "I don't know…"

"Hm." Roy responded the looked back up to the sky. "Hey, Riza, look!" he exclaimed, pointing at a bird that landed in a nearby try. It chirped a sweet song as it hopped across the branches.

"That must be the stork!" Riza replied with glee, "That must mean we are parents!"

The two children stood and watched the bird, smiling together as they held hands.

After several hours, the two were sitting up in Riza's room. They both were snuggled into Riza's bed as Riza held one of her books, explaining it to Roy.

"This is one of my favorites." she told him, "It's about a princess who stays locked up in a tower all of her life until a prince comes and saves her."

"She sounds a lot like you." Roy commented, pointing to the picture of the woman. "Isn't her name Rapunzel or something?"

The young girl nodded, "Yeah…but I am nothing like her."

"Why is that?"

Riza felt the back of her hair and stroked the short strands. "Rapunzel spent her whole life locked away and grew out her hair so that the prince could save her. I have never had my hair past my shoulders."

"Why don't you grow it out then?" he asked, looking at her as he touched her hair, "You never know when your prince will come."

She looked at him, her cheeks turning a shade of pink, "I…" she looked away quickly, "I don't know what you are talking about…no prince would ever come for someone like me."

"Don't sell yourself short." Roy replied, smiling "That prince may be closer than you think."

Riza looked back at the boy, her face completely red. "What do you mean?"

Roy shrugged, "Could be something, could be nothing." He then laid down and pulled the covers over himself. "Goodnight, Riza!"

"H-hey!" she replied, "You can't just do that!"

Roy pretended to be snoring, ignoring Riza.

She frowned and laid down next to him, pulling her covers over her head, looking at Roy, who's eyes were closed. Riza looked at him skeptically as she scooted her body closer, "G-goodnight, prince."

He smiled, "Goodnight, Rapunzel."

The next morning Riza had crawled out of bed early. She spent the morning drawing a picture with her crayons of the picture she saw the day before. In it, she had scribbled her father and her mother holding her hands. Riza put smiled on each of their faces and a sun next to their house in the background. She wrote on the bottom, "I love you, daddy." and took the paper with her as she left the room.

She made her way quietly down the hall into her father's study. Riza peeked inside to find him sitting there at his desk, caught in a world of sleep.

Riza tiptoed into the room and over to his desk. She looked at her father who was using his arms as pillows on top of his scribbled notes.

She moved his arms slowly out of the way as she crawled onto his lap. "Dad," she whispered, shaking him slightly, "Dad, wake up."

The elder Hawkeye's eyes opened slowly as he rose his head, slightly startled to find his daughter sitting on his lap. "What is it, Riza?" he asked in a groggy tone.

She shoved the drawing in his face and he took it, looking at the image begin as a blur of color but slowly focus as his eyes adjusted to the light. He stared at the family on the page. He looked at the words.

"I love you." Riza smiled, looking into her father's eyes. This was the first time she had ever worn her heart out on her sleeve and was gazing at him with hope-filled eyes. She was aching to hear those emotions that she poured out to be returned to her, knowing that her father cared.

"Who is this woman?" he spoke, his words were slow and quiet.

"What's this?" she asked, "Is something wrong?"

"Riza…" he demanded, "Answer me."

"Well…that's mom." she replied, pointing to the woman in the image.

His expression turned to a scowl quickly. "Riza…get out."

The young girl looked shocked. The words she normally didn't speak were out in the open, but they weren't returned. She extended her arms to wrap them around his neck for a hug, "But dad I…"

"Riza!" he shouted, pushing her off of him.

She landed on the ground and cried out, "Why are you doing this?"

He stood from his chair and held the image, ripping it in half, "I never want you to say anything about her again." Berthold walked over to the fireplace and threw it away, "This doesn't even deserve to be destroyed by flame alchemy."

Her eyes swelled up with tears as she sat on the ground. The sharp words he spoke felt as though they were sharp knives cutting into her skin. The pain absolutely crushed her. She was hoping only for his love in return, but instead she only felt more pain than before. "Get out of here!" he shouted.

She responded by instantly scrambling out in the room, falling into the hallway as she sobbed into the wooden floors. Had she been wrong all this time? She thought that her father loved her back, but his words only pierced her heart and broke her into pieces.

Berthold stood by the fireplace, watching as the paper burned. The words, 'I love you, daddy.' slowly vanished and turned to black ashes, breaking apart.

It was breaking both of their lives.

At this point he couldn't go back and pulled out the knives he had just driven into his daughter. Not any more. What he thought he was doing was presumed to be the best, but that was before he realized his biggest mistakes which he could never go back and correct.

He was a failure.


	13. Knives cut through me

Years passed after that day and Riza held little to no communication with her father. Their relationship together had been worse than it ever had, and none of them were making any efforts to mend it. The only time when she would ever see him was when she walked in the room to take his plate, but both of them only stood in silence.

Roy too would stand there, not quite sure what to say about the situation. He could feel the tense air and vividly continued to remember that day, how he woke up after hearing screaming and crying, only to run out of Riza's room to find her sobbing in the hall.

Throughout the years he kept looking into her eyes. He never again saw that same happiness and glow that once existed. Riza was broken into a million pieces and no matter how many time Roy tried to put them together, she was never truly fixed.

She had grown quiet too. When he was finally breaking through her shell to reveal a lively girl, it was all proven pointless for she locked herself up again. Riza never smiled the same, she never laughed the same. That joy that once lied in the girl had vanished and she reverted to the same as when he first met her.

They had both grown. He was now tall and his build matured. He was now a man that was strong enough to take care of himself. Riza on the other hand had filled out, her womanly nature became more apparent everyday. The only problem was, she lacked any self confidence to ever admit how beautiful she had become.

Roy had taken notice. He would sometimes try to talk to her, but things just became awkward as the years grew by. She was a woman and he was a man. The last thing he expected was for their worlds to become so different.

The man stood in Berthold's office. He would watch as the man slaved away, trying his best to complete his research. Roy watched as this man through away his life over the years, abandoning all of his relationships just for this.

Was it really worth what he strived for? Roy was beginning to think it wasn't.

He watched as the man grew ill, neglecting his own health at this point. As much as Roy had protested over the year that the man needed to stop, the elder Hawkeye refused to listen.

"It's all for the best." he would whisper as he hacked.

"It's all for the best…"

It wasn't until one night when the man heard screaming coming from Berthold's study. Roy ran down the hall as he listened to the noises.

Grunts of pain and anguish came from the other side of the closed door. He listened as he heard the sounds of a woman sobbing, crying from some sort of pain.

He leaned against the door, not sure what to think as he heard Berthold cough, "I've finally finished my research…"

Berthold stood on the other side of the door, a needle in his hand as he colored the ink onto his daughter's back.

Riza was hunched over in pain, kneeled over on the ground as tears streamed from her eyes. She was trying her hardest to be tough, but the pain every time her father began to mark on her back once more shot through her nerves and caused her to cry out. Her breath was heavy as she breathed.

"Father will finally love me…" she thought to herself. It was the only sort of reassurance she had every time she felt the pain. It made her want to sit through it despite how much she wanted it to stop.

Her father wiped off the blood that dripped off her back each time her pierced her skin. Bloodied rags piled up next to her and she stared at them, shocked to see her pain manifested in front of her.

When he finished he pulled away from her momentarily before he grabbed the bandages from his desk. He wrapped her up and told her, "Wear these for several days." before he sent her off, not saying anything else to his daughter.

She picked up her shirt and put it back on, the cloth touching her sensitive back made her wince a bit. "I love you, dad." she whispered.

Her father was silent and faced the other direction. He didn't know what to say to that. Berthold no longer knew how to express any feelings to his daughter any longer. He loved his little girl, but he just couldn't tell her anymore. He messed up.

"Just remember that I trust you." He told her before he sent his daughter on her way.

Riza left the room, not saying anything else. She wiped the tears from her eyes just before she opened the door.

Roy felt the door move behind him and he instantly pulled away, turning to see Riza standing there in front of him.

She looked up and seemed shocked by his presence, "O-oh…" her voice quivered as she looked down, "Hello, Roy…"

Riza quickly walked away, avoiding any other contact with the man.

He watched her leave before he looked into the room. He saw the elder Hawkeye standing there, next to the pile of bloodied cloth as the man stared into the burning furnace.

"Sir…what happened?" Roy asked as he stepped into the room, skeptical to ask as he feared what the answer would be.

He saw a tear slip down the older man's cheek, "I completed my research."


	14. I'm tired of feeling pain

One evening there was a knock at the Hawkeye's door.

Riza was standing in the kitchen, washing dishes as she stared blankly at the water. Seeing the suds on her fingers only trapped her in a world where she could not be bothered. She felt herself being completely shut off from everyone and everything.

The knock came again.

Her eyes shot wide open as she snapped out of her state. She quickly walked over to the door as she wiped her hands dry on a towel.

The woman unlocked the door and slowly opened it, looking up to see Roy in a state military uniform. Her eyes widened as she looked at him. The last thing she expected from him was to become a dog of the military. She was surprised her father even allowed him to do so.

"May I speak with Mr. Hawkeye?" he asked, looking down at the blonde haired woman.

She was silent for a moment, still taking in the initial shock of Roy being in the military. She soon stepped to the side, "He's in his bedroom." she replied quietly, looking to the floor, "He is really weak, so you probably can't visit for long."

"Thank you." Roy replied and walked by her, not saying anything else.

Riza watched as the man walked away from her. She leaned her body against the wall as she took in his appearance. It amazed her as to how much he had grown over the years and it broke her heart to see how she was losing her friend to the world.

The boy who played her husband.

The boy who was her prince.

Riza felt as though she was losing everything and it was all her fault. She felt her throat grow tight as if she were about to cry but she breathed slowly and stopped herself. She slowly followed behind Roy and watched him until he entered her father's room.

She stood outside the door, hearing soft murmurs of the two talking. Occasionally, her father would hack and breath heavy and slow. Nowadays, each time she heard him make those noises, she would hold her own breath, fearing that it was the last ones that he would take.

The murmurs turned to arguing quickly. Riza couldn't tell what they were saying, but her father sounded as though he was angry with Roy.

Suddenly it was quiet.

There was a large thud on the wooden floor.

"Master Hawkeye!" Riza heard Roy shouting at the top of his lungs from the other side of the door. "Master Hawkeye!"

Riza's breathing became shaky. Her breaths were uneven as she took in the shock. She knew what had happened. It was going to happen eventually. She slid to the ground and tried to control her breaths, her heart raced at a million miles an hour as she tried to take in what just happened.

He was a room away. His dead body was a room away. They were only separated by the thin walls, but Riza could feel his death creeping around her.

But why couldn't she cry?

All of her life, this man practically made her life terrible. She hated having to live there, but she always knew that she loved him. He was hr father after all, she had to love him. However, it killed her that she never felt his love in return. She should have been happy that this pain was out of her life now, but she just couldn't smile.

But she also couldn't cry. Was she a monster because she couldn't feel sorrow over her own father's death?

Days later she and Roy were standing in front of her father's tombstone. The two stood quietly as they expressed their mourning.

Neither of them cried.

"When are you leaving?" Riza finally asked.

Roy looked at her, "In a few days."

"Oh…" she replied, looking towards the ground, "Um…Roy?"

"Yeah?" He asked.

"Can I…." she paused for a moment, "Can I trust you with something?"

Roy smiled at her, "Oh course, you know that you can, just like before."

Riza looked at him and slowly walked over to him, taking his hand. "Alright." she whispered, looking to the ground before she began to pull him in the direction of Roy's car.

He followed her and the two got inside. The entire ride back to Riza's house was quiet and she avoided all eye contact with him whatsoever.

When they approached her house, the two got out and walked inside. It was awkward for Riza to go back into her home. No one was there and no one would ever be there again. She was all alone at this point with nothing to live for.

She turned to look at Roy.

"What is it you wanted to tell me?" he asked.

Riza began to unbutton her shirt and turned around.

The man's face turned red, "Riza what are you-" he suddenly stopped when he saw her pull down her shirt and reveal the ornate tattoo across her back.

"This is my father's research." she murmured quietly, holding her shirt over her chest while her back remained revealed. "When he finished, he tattooed it onto me."

Roy reached out and touched her back, the sudden warmth touching her cool skin made her shutter, "Did it hurt?"

She nodded slowly.

He traced his fingers over the patterns drawn on Riza's back. "This is what he invested his life into?"

She nodded again. "He trusted it to me…and now I am trusting it to you."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

Riza turned around, still holding her shirt against her chest, "I want you to burn my back."

Roy was shocked, "W-What? Why?"

"I don't want anyone else to see it." she whispered, turning around once more to reveal her back to him.

He stared at her quietly. Looking at the tattoo across her back. He stepped closer to her, wrapping his arms around her waist as he placed his chin atop her head, "Are you sure you want me to do this?"

Riza nodded slowly, "Yes. I'm tired of crying all the time."

Roy kissed the top of her head and stepped back, snapping his fingers.

The woman cried out in agony as a flame broke out across her back.


	15. One thing

_So I never anticipated while I was writing this chapter for it to get so...war like (?) I am changing the rating up to Teen because I feel that it no longer suit's the K+ audience. Some may not agree with me, but I want to be safe just in case. Sorry everyone.  
><em>

* * *

><p>Her eyes were tired.<p>

She looked through the crosshairs as she took aim on another civilian. Another Ishvalan. As she pulled the trigger, a bullet cut through the screams and terror below, nailing another victim in the skull as his blood gushed out onto the streets.

Bodies piled up one by one of the dark skinned people.

They had become murderers.

Each time Riza heard another explosion, another child crying, it sent chills up her spine. But she had stopped crying. There were no use for tears any more after this point. The crimes they had committed here onto the innocent citizens of Ishval were their own doing, and they had to accept it. No matter how much they wanted to cry, it would never change the fact that what they were doing was wrong.

Riza pulled her gun back as she sat against the wall of the empty room. How did she get here? What had become of her?

She looked to the ceiling as she thought about her childhood. She was nothing more than an innocent girl, seeing nothing but good in the world. She never expected it to be like this. Riza thought the military was supposed to be helping these people, but what kind of help is this?

All they did was hurt and kill.

"Was this what you were trying to prevent?" she asked quietly, still looking upwards as if she were trying to talk to her dad up in Heaven. "I should have never left my tower…" she added, standing up as she pulled the hood of her tan cloak over her eyes.

She walked out of the building to meet up with the other Amestrian soldiers. They were all sitting around, drinking their water and conversing over the war.

"We were just eager kids at the academy." she heard a man spoke.

Riza looked up to see two dark haired men talking. She watched them closely and listened to them speak. It wasn't until it dawned on her.

"Roy." she murmured, her eyes growing wide. She didn't expect to ever see him again, even though they had both become dogs of the military. She pulled off her hood.

The man looked over to her, his eyes widened a bit when he saw her face after all this time. "Riza…" he whispered, his tone sounded as if he were in disbelief.

The three of them sat down as they caught up. Mostly it just contained Hughes sitting next to the other two, listening to their stories that he didn't understand.

"Please tell me something…" she asked, looking into Roy's eyes.

"What is it?" he asked.

"How exactly are we helping this people?" she questioned.

Roy was silent in response. He looked to the ground as he locked his fingers together. He didn't have an answer for her. As much as he searched in his mind, he didn't even know why they were in Ishval any longer. The fighting, the riots, they all had lost their purpose. All the soldiers were doing now was just killing off innocent lives that deserved to live just as much as any one else.

"I want to talk to you alone…" Roy whispered, looking back at her.

The two stood and left the area, secluding themselves inside an abandoned building.

"What did you want to talk about?" Riza asked, her voice quiet.

He was silent for a moment before he looked back at her, "I'm tired of being a murderer."

"…" Riza didn't know how to respond, "I think we all are…but there isn't much we can do-"

"But I want to change this country." Roy interrupted.

The woman looked away from him, "I don't think we can-"

"I believe we can."

She looked back at him, shocked. For just that moment, Roy reminded her of her father. He had always wanted to change the world for the better, to ensure that corruption ended. His ideals sounded stupid to her now, and it only drove the knives her father once cut into her with deeper into her skin.

The last thing she wanted was for Roy to become like her father.

"Stop saying such pointless things." She demanded, covering her face with her hand as if trying to cover her own pain.

"If it is worth fighting for then it isn't pointless!" he yelled back.

Riza pulled her hand away and stared at him, shocked to hear Roy's words.

She turned away from him, "I don't know if I can believe that anymore."

His eyes looked as if they had lost that glimmer of hope for a split second and he touched her back. She jumped in response, startled by his touch. "I made the mistake of not fighting for something before…and I think I lost it."

Her body turned to face him, "What do you mean?"

"I'm one terrible prince." he commented, trying to smile, "I was supposed to save Rapunzel from loneliness, but I waited to long and she ended up saving herself."

Her lips quivered, "But Rapunzel is alone…" she whispered, "A lot of the time, she just wants to die…"

"She can't yet." he told her.

"Why not?" Riza asked in response.

"One thing still needs to be done, needs to be felt."

And thus their lips met.


	16. Two Breaths Walking

As they kissed, Riza felt her pain shatter. She didn't know why, but for some reason being with him made her feel alive again. Just like in her childhood, Roy was able to bring out these attributes in her that no matter how hard things were, no matter if it seemed like hell was forming around her, he taught her to smile.

It was as if he was the one who gave her the air to breath. She felt as though her words of discouragement that she spat to him earlier were just melting away and vanishing.

Her words would never again hurt another, and no words could ever pierce and kill her any longer. She would now remain alive thanks to Roy. He was her prince, he was the one who saved her from the nightmare she was living.

She broke their breath and pulled away, "I am in love you with you." she whispered in a wanton tone of voice.

He smiled at her, taking her in his arms, as he placed a hand behind her head, intertwining his fingers into her hair's short strands. "I am in love with you as well." he whispered back.

They held each other close, not saying anything else. Over all of the years, Riza knew she had loved Roy secretly, but she always feared speaking those words. She feared rejection. All of her life, she never knew what it was like to be loved in return. She thought she knew it once, but she presumed she got it wrong. Ever since the day she met Roy, she knew that she loved him, but she never knew how to say it. Her words were restrained all her life but now she felt as though she wanted to recklessly speak everything that she had kept bottled inside.

She pulled away from him slightly so that she could look into Roy's eyes, "I should have never called your dreams pointless."

He chuckled, "It's alright. I am still going to be stupid and follow them."

Riza was quiet for a moment and looked towards the ground, "Do you…" she paused, "Do you mind if I help make sure they happen?"

Roy was a little shocked at first that she said she would do such a thing. He didn't expect for her to be on his side, then again, Riza used to be a young optimistic child who always thought highly of the world. It was about time that the two make the world as glorious as Riza used to believe.

"If you're going to make that choice," he grabbed her hand, "You have to follow me follow me through all the trials that face us, no matter how painful they are."

She nodded and squeezed his hand tightly, "I understand…"

"Also…" he stopped, "I want you to look me in the eyes."

Riza did so without complaint.

"If I ever stray from the words I speak now, I want you to shoot me in the back. You can never change a country if you can't stay on your righteous path."

She swallowed hard.

"Can you promise me that you will do that?" Ha asked, looking deep into her eyes

"But Roy, that just doesn't seem right-"

"If you are going to make this choice, please quiet all of your noise." he told her, "It's a simple command and I want a simple answer."

Riza took in a deep breath, not sure how to answer.

"Well?"

"Yes." she finally spoke, nodding as if trying to push herself more into accepting it, "I promise that I will never let you stray, and if you do, I will shoot you in the back."

Roy smiled, "Good."

She tried to smile back, "Let's just hope we never have to see that happen."

He leaned over and kissed her forehead. For the time being, all they had to do was live and breath together, to survive what was happening right before them. If they could live through Ishval, they could take on any other trials that faced them down the road.

For now, their words would remain unspoken, but their intentions would be true. The two would work together to create the better world for everyone to live in. Their idealistic ideas seemed foolish, but they were willing to believe them so long as they continued to remain by each other's side, encouraging the other.

He showed her a world she never thought she would see and the emotions she never thought she would feel. He was her savior and the best thing she could do in return was to stand by his side and be his savior when he needed her.

But in the meantime, they were just two breaths walking.

THE END.


	17. Thanks for reading!

_Dear Readers,_

_Thank you for reading this Royai. I was so scared that it would be terrible, I feared that I could never write anything good after I wrote "Two Drinks For One." I actually debated dropping this fan fiction on many occasions because I didn't like how it was going. However, over time I began to like it more and I realized that I wanted to work the cute nature of their childhood and the emotions that came along with it._

_It was weird writing this thinking of child Riza. I am so used to seeing her when she is an adult that I had to google how she was growing up. I only got a few hints as to how the relations were with her father and I had to improvise with everything else. I am sorry for anything I might have gotten wrong or if you don't like the way I made childhood Riza. I tried my hardest and I hope you liked it regardless._

_The thing I loved most about this was writing the scenes where there was some real emotional anguish. In example, the scene where Roy and Riza get lost from one another, the scene where Riza's father rejects her. For some reason I really loved writing those scenes…maybe it is because I love placing emotions into my writing._

_I cried a few times writing this. I honestly did like it after a while. Besides, I loosely based this off of the song, "Two Breaths Walking" by Miku Hatsune which is a song I really like. I used the English translation that I usually go by and tried to incorporate as much in as I can._

_Anyways, I hope you enjoyed reading! I hope to keep writing Royai in the future and that all of you keep reading!_

_With much love and thanks,_

_WinryMarellie._


End file.
